Electronic friction in proton tunneling at the electrochemical interface

Sebastian, KL (1998) Electronic friction in proton tunneling at the electrochemical interface. In: Journal of Chemical Physics, 109 (3). pp. 1111-1119.

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Abstract

: We consider the effects of electronic friction (nonadiabaticity) on the tunneling of a proton from an H3O+ in water to the surface of a metal electrode. The final state is a hydrogen atom adsorbed on the surface of the metal. We use a simple model Hamiltonian for the description of the process and calculate the tunneling probability using the semiclassical approaches of Miller [J. Chem. Phys. 62, 1899 (1975)]. The continuum of electron-hole excitations is accounted for by treating them as bosons. We show that typically, tunneling probability can be decreased by one to two orders of magnitude by coupling to electron-hole excitations. We also report on the effect of isotopic substitution on this rate. While our analysis is specifically for an electrochemical situation, the results are of general validity and imply a decrease in tunneling probability, due to electronic friction for the proton in cases where tunneling occurs in the presence of a metal surface for example, atom transfer in STM experiments.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Chemical Physics
Publisher:	American Institute of Physics
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Institute of Physics.
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Inorganic & Physical Chemistry
Date Deposited:	03 Jun 2009 05:11
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 05:02
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/18500

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